There have been a number of conventional electronic still cameras and hybrid cameras either proposed and/or commercially developed. In conventional electronic still cameras, electronic images are generally captured and stored on a recording medium that can be removed from the camera or are alternatively transmitted by a data link to a remote location. Early electronic and hybrid cameras, for example, utilized magnetic recording disks as an image storage medium, while more recent developments in electronics have led to the use of semiconductor device memory cards. With electronic imaging either alone or in conjunction with conventional silver halide imaging gaining popularity, a need has arisen for providing a mechanism to allow an individual to retain selected digital images that can be carried in portable fashion for display to friends and colleagues; much in the same way that conventional photographic prints can be carried in a photographic album section of a wallet.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a camera that incorporates an electronic imaging system for generating digital images, alone or in conjunction with a silver-halide imaging system, and a mechanism for storing selected digital images within the camera for subsequent display, thereby providing a convenient and practical apparatus for transporting digital images.